I played Rise of Venice at Gamescom, which is a bit like reading Aristotle’s politics while in the middle of a dancefloor at an Ibiza boat party. As I clicked through menus, filling my ship’s cargo hold with luxurious trade goods, a Saints Row booth spat dubstep at me and a twenty foot tall Titanfall mech suit watched from across the floor, spotlights caressing its form as crowds gathered to gawp at it. I didn’t spend enough time to share proper impressions but I can confirm that the trailer below is about as honest a piece of pre-release advertising as anything I’ve ever seen. A detailed description of how to buy goods and form trade routes, it is as dry as Venice is not.

If you enjoy this sort of thing, Rise of Venice seems like a good example. It’s out on the 27th so I’ll take a proper look as soon as possible. It’ll fit in far better here than it did at Gamescom, in the company of my maps and abaci.

Looks intriguing… But the real fun of Merchant Prince / Machiavelli was always the political side of things (especially in PBEM) – poisoning your opponents, burning down their warehouses and slandering their good names: “MOROSINI drinks canal water!”